


she was my angel

by alephnull



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, Drabble, F/F, Introspection, One Shot, Past Relationship(s), Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-27 04:03:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12073146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alephnull/pseuds/alephnull
Summary: Chloe Price, newly engaged to Max Caulfield, finds a box of memories in her closet.





	she was my angel

She hasn’t intended to look through the pile of _stuff_ in the corner of their closet. It just seems that, lately, Chloe has been looking through all of their possessions out of boredom. They aren’t going anywhere, yet it seems like an archive of the life she has led up until now, and things to be metaphorically left behind in pursuit of this new, domestic, _adult_ life.

Chloe Price has very little regrets in life. She is most certainly the “take things as they come” kind of girl, and she definitely isn't upset about her upcoming wedding. However, she can’t shake the feeling that she'd be leaving something behind, something intangible yet unequivocally _there_. It just seems that, for the first twenty-one years of her life, she's been Chloe and she's _lived_. Now she feels like she's going to be paying bills, working a nine-to-five job, having kids and pets and living in a suburban home with a picket fence. That doesn't feel like _Chloe_ , and perhaps she wants to look to her past for comfort.

Of course, she stumbles across her box of Rachel things and is taken aback momentarily.

Rachel Amber. The girl, the enigma, the storm. It seems like a different lifetime when a young, fumbling, teenage Chloe Price had fallen so ridiculously and head-over-heels for the popular, bright girl who everyone loved. For the past two years, Chloe has tried to push her past… crush, friend, best friend? out of her mind. And, for the most part, it has worked just fine. Max has kept Chloe’s mind busy, the two girls using each other as support systems after… after _that_. It. The Week. Chloe is still unsure of what to think about when she thinks of that week in October. It had felt not-quite-real, in some senses.

She brings her mind back to the box, debating whether or not to open it. She has not looked inside since the clean-up workers had sent her everything salvaged from her house. She has no idea if the contents had even survived the storm.

Yet, despite the part of her which wanted to just forget Rachel—mostly because of the pain associated with her memory—Chloe finds herself opening the lid to reveal the untarnished memorabilia stored inside. She sees the Chloe side of the photo, which she then tentatively unfolds. It is the first time she has seen Rachel’s face since Max had come back to Chloe. She finds herself still, even after so long, enraptured by the elegant curves of her face, of the way light seemed to fall just perfectly to highlight the dips and lines framing her. The thought makes her feel a little dirty, as if she has betrayed Max by thinking such a thing. But she cannot help it; a much younger Chloe had spent so much time studying that beautiful face, so wonderful that it seemed to glow at times. She had spent so much time memorising all of Rachel’s expressions and the way her face seemed to literally light up when she smiled, and the frown she made jokingly and the frown she made when she was genuinely upset. Chloe finds that she has not forgotten anything about Rachel.

“Chloe?”

 _Shit_. It’s Max.

When Chloe looks up, she sees that Max’s eyes are glued to the photo in Chloe’s hand.

“I was just-”

Max takes Chloe’s hands, nodding simply in response.

“Do you still-?” Max gestures emphatically with her hands, unsure of what to say or perhaps just afraid that speaking the words would make them real.

Chloe pauses for a moment to consider her answer and then replies, “Yeah. I think I do.”

Max nods again, pressing a gentle kiss to Chloe’s lips. This is why Chloe loves her, and this is why Chloe is marrying her. She does not need to assure Max, because Max _knows_. They could never say _I love you_ for their entire relationship and it would be the same, because they both know how much they love each other, so much so that it hurts to even think about it.

Chloe folds up the photo again, Chloe-side-up, and places it back into the box. The box returns to their closet and she never looks at it again, and she never feels the need to.


End file.
